Applications of High-speed Digital Imaging in the Clinical Setting

Abstract

Laryngeal stroboscopy and high-speed digital imaging (HSDI) are used for clinical examinations and research concerning vocal cord vibrations. Laryngeal stroboscopy is already widely used in daily clinical practice; however, while HSDI has been studied extensively, it is rarely used for routine outpatient clinical practice. The goal of this paper is to describe two ways in which we use laryngeal HSDI in daily clinical practice: to choose the injection site in injection laryngoplasty and in the diagnosis of sclerotic lesions on the vocal cords. We usually select injection sites based on information derived from the video recorded by HSDI just before the procedure. For the evaluation of vocal fold sclerotic lesions, a lack of vibration and decrease in wave motion can be observed more accurately using HSDI than with stroboscopy. Therefore, HSDI is useful for the diagnosis of vocal fold sclerotic lesions. HSDI is useful not only for making a diagnosis before treatment but also for performing evaluations after treatment and assessing recurrence. In this paper, we described how we use HSDI in our daily clinical practice.